Kate Farhall

This paper proposes an integrated theoretical framework for understanding women, work and violence in non-metropolitan contexts. Despite the fact that the relationship between domestic and family violence (DFV) and the workplace is a growing focus of academic research, there remain certain lacunae within the literature. In particular, research that examines DFV and work in tandem is incredibly urban-centric, but also quite descriptive and a-theoretical, as well as quantitative in its methodological approaches. The lack of non-metropolitan research at the nexus of DFV and work is puzzling, given that established scholarship tells us firstly that DFV is more potent and complicated outside of big cities, and secondly that work is also harder to obtain and more complicated. In light of these issues, the current paper serves three distinct functions. Firstly, it operates as a call for the generation of new research that addresses limitations within the academic conversation. Secondly, it argues for the significance of research that illuminates the relationship between work and DFV in non-metropolitan locations; not only to address the existing knowledge gap, but also because the findings generated in these more ‘extreme’ scenarios may assist us in effectively addressing the DFV–work nexus more broadly. And thirdly, to facilitate the production of rigorous and holistic knowledge at the intersection of work, DFV and non-metropolitan experience, the paper proposes an integrated theoretical framework for understanding women, work and violence in non-metropolitan contexts. Overall, it argues that such an integrated framework would necessarily need to account for the contextual factors of space and place, as well as feminist theory on work, and existing knowledge on both violence against women and the complexities of work in non-metropolitan contexts.

“Fake news” has become a global term since Donald Trump’s election as President of the United States. President Trump adopted what we describe as a “discourse of fake news” to attack and discredit news media and political rivals, which is suggested to have been reproduced by politicians in other national contexts. This article investigates whether Australian politicians adopt a fake news discourse. To do so, data are gathered over six months after Trump’s election from four political communications fora : parliamentary debates, social media (Facebook and Twitter), press, and politicians’ websites. We find fake news discourse is predominantly the domain of conservatives. Frequent users employ fake news discourse to delegitimize primarily the media, but also political opponents. Australian politicians’ use of fake news discourse is rare, but it is amplified by news media. Concerningly, it is seldom contested. We argue this has negative consequences for public debate and trust in media and political institutions.

The political economy for watchdog reporting is deeply challenging, yet exposing abuses of public trust had renewed focus in 2016. “Spotlight”—a Boston Globe investigation into Catholic Church sex abuse—inspired an Oscar-winning film. Two months later, 300 International Consortium for Investigative Journalism members broke the global story of tax evasion with the Panama Papers. These represent exemplar moments for watchdog journalism in a “post-truth” age characterised by fake news. They illustrate a shift in investigative reporting practice: from an “old model” of a highly competitive single newsroom environment—like the “Spotlight” team—to a “new model” of multiple newsrooms (and countries) sharing information to expose wrongdoing on a global scale, like the Panama Papers. This paper applies mixed methods to analyse the development and consequences of this new model of collaborative investigative journalism. It examines 30 years of national media awards in Britain, the United States and Australia to identify when award-winning newsroom collaborations began, their key story targets and outcomes. These findings are triangulated with interviews with investigative journalists. The findings theoretically and empirically add to emerging scholarship examining how digital media technologies—held responsible for the “journalism crisis”—paradoxically offer opportunities for evidence-based journalism.

This article undertakes a feminist discourse analysis of references to female–female sexuality in selected editions of two Australian women’s magazines published in 1993, 2003 and 2013. It identifies three distinct phases in the discursive evolution of female–female sexuality: the lesbian chic era of the 1990s, the rise of heteroflexibility at the turn of the century and the advent of the girl crush discourse in the 21st-century. The article examines each phase chronologically, showing that despite seemingly offering acceptance, in reality these discourses portray female–female sexuality as an adjunct to heterosexuality. In this way, they fail to disrupt heteropatriarchal sexual norms, instead privileging male desire and presenting lesbian sexuality as both a performance and a vehicle of self-objectification designed to garner male attention, or as a heterosexual flirtation that is easily discarded.

This report details the preliminary findings of research examining the intersections between work and domestic and family violence in non-metropolitan areas. Through interviews with professionals located in the Gippsland region of southeast Australia whose work includes a family violence focus, it seeks to address the lack of research into the work-violence interface outside of metropolitan areas.